Like fans, San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle is tired of the quarterback injuries. The All-Pro player has been to the NFC Championship Game three times over the past four seasons. Last year played out like some kind of cruel joke, though.
By the time the Niners reached the NFC title game in January, they were on their third quarterback of the season, rookie Brock Purdy. Then, Purdy got injured early in the contest and couldn’t throw a pass. After that, his backup, Josh Johnson, left with a concussion.
For those keeping count, that’s four quarterbacks in one season. Talk about poor luck.
On Monday, Kittle sat down with NFL Network’s Steve Mariucci and Colleen Wolfe. The tight end has played with many quarterbacks over the years (four last year alone!). Mariucci asked if he has a preference when it comes to signal callers.
“My preference is as long as there’s like one guy that’s back there that’s healthy,” Kittle responded. “That’d be awesome. Just [to] get on the same page.”
Having to switch quarterbacks so often due to injuries has to be frustrating. The tight end would obviously like his team to be more fortunate in that department.
“It’s crazy. So I’m going into year seven. My first year, I had three quarterbacks,” Kittle shared. “My second year, I had three quarterbacks. My third year, I had one quarterback—2019, we go to the Super Bowl. 2020, I think I had 17 quarterbacks. 2021, we had three quarterbacks. And last year, we had four quarterbacks.
“So let’s just get to one, guys. It would be fun, right? Just some consistency would be really fun.”
The 49ers hope that one is Purdy, who was cleared to practice at the start of training camp and should be ready for Week 1 of the regular season. If things don’t work out as hoped, the team likes its quarterback depth. Trey Lance and Sam Darnold are competing for the QB2 job. San Francisco also has Brandon Allen on the roster.
